Thursday, August 09, 2012

Shopping For Records: Zs Ten-Year Anniversary Box Set

Zappa meets Ruins?

The Brooklyn based Zs is releasing a four-disc retrospective called, Score — The Complete Sextet Works: 2002-2007, in correlation with their ten year anniversary. The band now functions as a trio, so I imagine this box set is not only a retrospective, but a requiem for Zs as they once were. Yes, I realize I'm probably injecting a dose of romance where it doesn't belong, but I can't imagine that one wouldn't approach their tenth anniversary doing ANYTHING without a tinge of reflection, especially when this anniversary means something new approaches.

All info comes to you courtesy of Northern Spy Records.

Zs Celebrates 10 Years As A Band, Debuts New Line-Up 8/29, Releases Retrospective Box Set 9/11

The new Zs line-up (Patrick Higgins, Sam Hillmer, Greg Fox)

This September 2012 New York City band Zs celebrates 10 years of being a band with the release of SCORE - The complete sextet works from 2002-2007. Zs has been described with a dizzying array of musical vocabularies, and has performed alongside an equally dizzying complement of colleagues and collaborators ranging from Throbbing Gristle's Genesis P. Orridge, to Roscoe Mitchell, to Christian Wolf, not to mention hundreds of comrades from the Brooklyn DIY scene, that has been home to Zs' myriad incarnations and musical and artistic tangents. Belonging nowhere and everywhere, Zs has absorbed the editorial space of Howard Stern and Alex Ross alike. In 10 years of activity, the band has changed in countless ways without ever changing a fierce commitment to inscrutable aesthetics and execution crafted to provoke reflection and challenge assumption in the consumption of music.

The 4 disc box-set hits stores on 9/11 and pulls together all of the out of print works from the band's first 5 years of existence along with a disc of never released material. There are over four and half hours of music represented, a 20-page booklet, and four CDs in printed sleeves, all housed in a beautiful 55pt box featuring original artwork by art/design team Fredericks & Mae.

To celebrate a hugely productive decade, the band is celebrating, surrounded by band members old and new, with an epic Ten-Year Anniversary & Box Set Record Release Show Wednesday August 29th at 285 Kent in Brooklyn NY. Featured will be Diamond Terrifier (featuring Sam Hillmer of Zs), Hubble (featuring former Zs member Ben Greenberg), Extra Life (featuring former Zs member Charlie Looker), Wet Ink Ensemble (featuring former Zs members Alex Mincek & Ian Antonio)and the Mick Barr + Marc Edwards Duo.

To further the ever evolving nature of the group, Zs will debut new material and a new line-up at the 8/29 show. Guitarist/composer Patrick Higgins (Bachanalia, ex-Animal) and drummerGreg Fox (Guardian Alien, ex-Liturgy) have joined founding member Sam Hillmer to launch Zs into their second decade. They’ve been rehearsing in secret for months and this show is not to be missed. RELEASE DETAILS:

DISC THREE: B Is For Burning, Woodworking, Nobody Wants To Be Had, Balk, I Can’t Concentrate, Except When You Don’t Because Sometimes You Won’t, Z Is For Zone, Except When You Don’t Because Sometimes You Won’t (Zebrablood Remix), Bump (Zebrablood Remix)